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Soy milk paid for fridge space
Soy milk first came in Tetra Paks, the packages of liquid that don't have to be refrigerated. Europeans are used to buying even cow's milk in packages like those, but Americans weren't. The founder of White Wave, a company making soy milk in Boulder, Colorado, realized that Americans would never see soy milk as a legit substitute for milk if it didn't have to be refrigerated like milk.
Putting it beside the dairy made people see it as milk, and that helped soy milk take off. A couple of years later, research seemed to show that soy helped reduce LDL cholesterol, which is commonly considered the bad cholesterol, and soy picked up a health halo. By the early 2000s soy milk was in nine out of 10 supermarkets, and it showed up at Starbucks not long after.
How do cartons keep milk fresh unrefrigerated?
The milk is heated to about 135 to 150 degrees Celsius for a few seconds, a process called ultra-high-temperature treatment, which kills nearly all bacteria. It is then sealed into sterile cartons made of layered paperboard, plastic, and aluminum foil. Because nothing gets in afterward, the milk stays safe on a shelf for months until the seal is opened. Tetra Pak, the company behind the carton, was founded in Sweden in 1951.
Why does shelf placement cost money?
Grocery chains routinely charge manufacturers fees for prime shelf space, known as slotting allowances. Shelf placement shapes what shoppers see as a product's category and which items they compare it to. A 2003 report from the US Federal Trade Commission described slotting allowances as a longstanding practice in the grocery industry.
What did the FDA say about soy and cholesterol?
In 1999 the US Food and Drug Administration authorized a health claim linking soy protein to a lower risk of heart disease. The claim rested on studies showing small reductions in LDL cholesterol. In 2017 the agency proposed revoking it, citing newer studies with inconsistent results.
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